Monday, 16 June 2008

A clean Neta, literally!

Any politician has to just spend a few hours cleaning up a public place in my constituency to get my vote. Even if he/she does it only once in five years, but does a thorough job of it (not just for the photo op), I am willing to vote for him. The elections are round the corner in Delhi, I do hope some candidates will take notice :-)

Some of the new age political advisors tell me that this is one of the best ways to warm the hearts of voters. The act of cleaning up is extremely symbolic of all things good that we wish to see in our public leaders – humility, dignity of labour, a desire to clean up the system of corruption and an expression of concern and care.

I have a penchant for cleaning up public places, while working with an MP a couple of years back I used to clean up public parks in slums, open nallahs and water bodies in not so clean and green part of Delhi. Once I even got some 1000 young people (part of a Gandhian National Camp) to take a long stretch of open nallah to clean up. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi provided the tools.

So when I came across this story of a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) cleaning up garbage and not just once, he had been doing it for years, I just had to share this with all of you....

Here goes the story-

PUDUCHERRY: N Anand, fondly called "Bussy" Anand, is a busy man. A first-time MLA, he was elected from the Bussy assembly constituency in the Union territory in 2006 and hence the prefix. And when the 44-year-old legislator of Puducherry Munnetra Congress is not pushing for schemes, meeting voters or discussing local politics over a cuppa, he's clearing garbage, cleaning clogged drains and spraying mosquito repellent across the town. And he does this with his own money, spending Rs 75,000 to Rs 85,000 every month from his earnings. Anand's dual role began nine years ago when, disappointed with the government's slack conservancy work, he started a garbage collection unit of his own. Since then, he has been going to the 'field' himself, assisting a small team in spraying mosquito repellent, clearing blocks in drains and undertaking door-to-door collection of garbage from all households in his constituency. When his nine-year-old unit launched an intensive cleaning campaign last week, the MLA was spotted going around in a spotless white shirt and pants with a mosquito repellent kit on his back, covering the thoroughfares of Puducherry. And he doesn't do it for publicity: for long, he was neither given a party post nor a ticket while he was in Congress.

But Anand plodded on with garbage-clearing, not letting the mess in the Congress stop him from cleaning the city. "The government is not effectively undertaking garbage clearance work," he says, as he expertly sprays repellent on an open sewage drain. Anand's unit, which started with a single tricycle and two men in 1999, has 14 members today, equipped with four tricycles and gadgets "to carry out our mission". So much so that residents refuse to hand over garbage to the government conservancy staff and wait for Anand's unit every morning. The members visit all households daily, barring Sundays, from 6am to 12 noon, and from 4pm to 6pm and collect segregated garbage. "People appreciated my work and rewarded me by electing me in 2006. I am grateful to them, but my garbage collection campaign will continue forever," said the first-time MLA.